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The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), which envisages transportation of the Azerbaijani gas to Europe, is the only real project in this sphere, Italy's Ambassador to Azerbaijan Giampaolo Cutillo told Trend.

Cutillo made the remarks commenting on the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) regarding the deliveres of Russian gas to Italy.

Last week, Russia's energy giant Gazprom, Italy's Edison SpA and Greek gas company DEPA SA signed a memorandum of understanding on deliveries of Russian natural gas through third countries to Greece and from Greece to Italy via an undersea pipeline in the Black Sea.

This memorandum was signed by private companies, according to Cutillo, and the Italian government is not involved in this project.

The Southern Gas Corridor is the only priority for Italy and the EU, said the diplomat, calling the project "the only real one" and almost ready to launch.

Italy may also be interested in other projects, but new projects require a lot of legal, marketing, and organizational issues to be considered, the ambassador said.

"Italy is committed to the Southern Gas Corridor project, and the construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will start soon in Italy," said Cutillo.

Today the Southern Gas Corridor is among the European Commission's priority energy projects, which aims at the diversification of the EU gas supply sources and routes. Azerbaijani gas in considered as the main source for that project.

The project, which envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian Sea region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey, has been included in the European Commission's PCI (projects of common interest) list.